Looking for a change from the jatkas-matkas, mother sentiment, action, romantic and brainless comic flicks flooding the theatres near you? Then head to the international film festival that Bangalore is playing host to between November 8 and 15.

The festival is being organised by the Karnataka Chalanachitra Academy in association with the Federation of Film Societies of India.

"Of the 110 foreign films that we received, 82 have been selected. Also 12 Indian films will be screened," says president of the Academy Nagabharana.  The festival is extended to Bidar, Mangalore, Dharwad and Shimoga as well.

"Only 12-18 films have been repeated across these centres. In each city, only one or two Kannada films will be screened. We have limited the screening of Kannada films as we want to expose Kannadigas to foreign films as well," explains Nagabharana.

The screenings will be conducted in DVD format.  Suchitra Film Society, Banashankri; Yavanika, Nrupatunga Road; Seva Sadan (between November 9 and 12) and Samprati (between November 13 and 15), Malleshwaram, are the Bangalore venues. Shows will be held at 11 am, 2 pm, 4.30 pm, 7 pm and 9 pm.

Films from Germany, Romania, France, Israel, Taiwan, Korea, Argentina, Netherlands, Norway, Mexico, South Africa, Iran, America and Czech will be screened.

Among Indian languages, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Bengali and Kannada films will be shown. Miss Leelavathi (Yavanika, November 9, 11 am) and Subba Shastry (Seva Sadan, November 10, 11 am), Vijayanagarada Veeraputra (Bidar), Belli Moda (Mangalore), Kittur Chennama (Dharwad) and Chandavalliya Thota(Shimoga) are the Kannada films that will be screened. Malayalam award-winning film Kutty Srank (Yavanika, November 9, 7 pm) Tamil films Pasanga (Mangalore) and Kanchivaram (Dharwad) and Bengali film Antaheen (Shimoga) are among the selected films.

Romanian film Crossing Dates (Suchitra, November 8,7 pm) by Anca Damian, a film set around prison inmates is being pitted as a must watch. German film Summer in Berlin (Suchitra, November 11, 7 pm) also promises to be a good watch, according to festival co-ordinator Shivanand.

Postman in the Mountains a film about a retiring postman and his son (Yavanika, November 11,7 pm); Getting Home, a Chinese road movie about two friends (Suchitra, November 12, 2pm); Smell of Camphor (Suchitra, November 13, 9 pm), an Iranian film with an aged director as its central character; The Road Home (Suchitra, November 14, 9 pm; Yavanika, November 13, 2 pm) , a Chinese love story between a country girl and a teacher; The dream of Heroes (Yavanika, November 11, 4.30 pm), an Argentinian film about Emilio, who lands up in a strange situation after a jolly party and I Can't Live Without you (Yavanika, November 14, 7 pm), a film from Taiwan on a man and his daughter are the other picks.

A seminar on 'The Challenges and Opportunities of Film Distribution and Exhibition in the Digital Age' will also be held as part of the fest.

 For schedules and more details, log on to www.thekca.in